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Earlier this week Morrisons said it is considering the launch of an online grocery store, after it was left behind at Christmas by shoppers who avoided visiting supermarkets and ordered from rival websites for hole delivery.

Supermarket sweep: MP John Denham is set to introduce the 'ten minute bill' in Parliament next Tuesday.

But, Denham, MP for Southampton, also wants supermarkets to make information about pricing in shops across the country, not just an average price, available – so it’s easy for customers to see where the best prices are locally, not just for online shopping.

He says that this information is already held by supermarkets. He said: ‘If supermarkets made data from all stores available it would allow technology companies to build apps or algorithms giving us instant price comparisons.’

‘It would be easier to spot the real buy one get one frees and 2 for 1 offers and would tilt the bias in the favour of shoppers.

‘We’re not asking them to provide any data that isn’t’ already available and there’s no reason why it can’t be available online.’

Website MySupermarket offers a
comparison service for shoppers, but it only compares the prices of
Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda, Waitrose and Ocado items, mainly because prices
for other stores are not available online.

James
Foord, from mySupermarket.co.uk, said: ‘Full price transparency could
be a reality, which has always been our mission, but will not happen
until Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons and others share their pricing.’

He
also added that further action is needed to force supermarkets to share
prices with customers online and welcomed parliamentary reform on the
issue.

Tesco crisps on offer: Some discounts are hard to spot when shopping in-store

Sainsbury's Mince pies on offer: Supermarkets are full of discounts but it's hard to compare prices when you're cruising the aisles.

Last month the Office of Fair Trading introduced a voluntary code of practice for supermarkets asking them to ensure all promotions and deals are not inflated to make the discount look more attractive.

It also asked shops to only advertise an item as discounted if there was no other way of buying it cheaper elsewhere in store.

Aldi, Co-Op, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose all agreed to sign the code of practice.

What internet? Aldi is one of the supermarkets that doesn't have an online store, making price comparisons almost impossible.

But MP John Denham thinks that this must now go further. He said: ‘We the public have had to pay for the OFT to investigate supermarket deals and it would be much better if the supermarkets could publish the data and customers could check these offers out for themselves.’

After the introduction of the 'ten minute bill' by Denham next Tuesday it is likely that the issue will get a second reading in Parliament later this year.

However, there is a long way to go before parliamentary reform could take place and it is hoped that raising profile of the issue will be enough to get supermarkets to cooperate.